Acceptable Use Policy

Introduction

Surpass Hosting is dedicated to providing top quality service at a very affordable price. The conditions which follow are necessary to ensure that we may continue to provide the best possible service to all of our customers whilst at the same time satisfying our legal and ethical responsibilities.

Failure to follow any condition will be grounds for immediate account deactivation without notice. Surpass Hosting will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of any of these provisions.

Activity which results in the suspension or deactivation of an account will result in a forfeiture of all fees paid. Complaints made regarding abuses of an account will be investigated and if found guilty will be grounds for immediate suspension.

To report suspected abuses or any violations of these policies, please contact our abuse department at abuse(@surpasshosting.com).

Illegal Usage

Surpass Hosting servers may be used for lawful purposes only. Transmission, storage, or distribution of any information, data or material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, prescription drug sales, and material that is obscene, defamatory, constitutes an illegal threat, or violates export control laws. Examples of non-acceptable content or links: pirated software, hacker programs or archives, warez sites, MP3, and IRC bots. Any type of forum/discussion board discussing where to obtain such files or one that distributes the files is also prohibited. Sites related to HYIP (High Yield Investment Programs), Ponzi schemes or pyramid schemes are prohibited. The subscriber to Surpass Hosting service agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Surpass Hosting from any claims resulting from the use of the service that damages the subscriber or any other party. Surpass Hosting will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.

Illegal Content

Surpass Hosting does not allow torrent clients or trackers due to copyright issues and resource abuse. Background daemons such as IRC bots, eggdrop, BitchX, XiRCON and any other program that interferes with normal server operation are not allowed. Web proxies are also not tolerated due to resource abuse. When using an account with shell, you are not allowed to run any servers or services on the Surpass network. Servers are defined as perlbots, proxies, bitchX, psyBnc, root exploits, DDoS scripts, Shoutcast servers, etc. Running any of these will face an immediate suspension, and users will be subject to a fine no less than $50.00 USD, and no more than $100.00 USD. Surpass reserves the right to terminate an account for these activities also.

Chat Rooms

Surpass Hosting does not provide nor allow chat rooms on shared hosting environments. You may elect for a dedicated server to run a chat room efficiently.

IRC

Surpass Hosting does not allow IRC or IRC bots to be operated on our shared or reseller servers. They are allowed on dedicated servers provided that no negative effects occur to our network.

Security

Users are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Surpass Network. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Surpass Hosting will investigate occurrences, which may involve cooperation with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting Users who are involved in such violations. These violations include, without limitation:

Accessing data not intended for such user or logging into a server or account, which such user is not authorized to access.
Attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization
Attempting to interfere with service to any user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of overloading, "flooding", "mail bombing" or "crashing"
Forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail or forum posting
Taking any action in order to obtain services to which such User is not entitled
Attempting to couple many hosting packages together to take advantage of massive space or bandwidth allocations

Each hosting package purchased is unique to a domain name and use - you are not allowed to purchase multiple plans to obtain combined bandwidth & space. Surpass Hosting will stop such transactions and label them as deceptive. We have an upgrade path for all services and we can often times work out special deals for users if they ask us for the assistance.

Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability. Examples include, but are not limited to the following: Unauthorized access, use, probe, or scan of a systems security or authentication measures, data or traffic. Interference with service to any user, host or network including, without limitation, mail bombing, flooding, deliberate attempts to overload a system and broadcast attacks. Forging of any TCP-IP packet header or any part of the header information in an email or a newsgroup posting.

Server Abuse

Any attempts to undermine or cause harm to a Surpass Hosting server or customer of Surpass Hosting is strictly prohibited. Any sub-networks of Surpass Hosting and dedicated servers must adhere to the above policies. The failure to meet or follow any of the above guidelines are grounds for account deactivation. We reserve the right to remove any account without prior notice.

User agrees to only use shared hosting services for its intended applications. Misuses include scientific/grid/distributed computing, data warehouse/backup storage, or bandwidth sinks. SurpassHosting.com, LLC will be the sole arbiter to what is considered a misuse of service. User agrees to ask SurpassHosting.com, LLC in the event they are unsure of their application's fitness for our shared hosting services.

Multimedia Files

Multimedia files are defined as any graphics, audio, and video files. Surpass Hosting Web Hosting accounts are not to be used for the purposes of distributing and storing unusual amount of multimedia files. Any Web site whose disk space usage for storing the multimedia files exceed 70% of its total usage, either in terms of total size or number of files, will be deemed to be using unusual amount of multimedia files.

Client Responsibility

The client is responsible for all activity originating from the account unless proven to be a victim of outside hacking or address forgery. The client is responsible for securing their username/password. The client assumes responsibility for all material on their site that may be put on by a third party.

Backup Policy

Surpass Hosting takes extreme steps to maintain system integrity. However, Surpass Hosting shall not be held responsible for loss of data due to any cause. To ensure the highest level of data protection, Surpass Hosting recommends that ALL information be backed up on your own computer. As with any data that you hold a high importance to, it should be in more than one location at all times. All Surpass Hosting data backups are designed against hardware failure, not customer user error.

Actions Taken

The failure by a customer to meet or follow any of the above policies/terms is grounds for account deactivation. Surpass Hosting will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of the AUP. Surpass Hosting reserves the right to remove any account without prior notice.

When Surpass Hosting becomes aware of an alleged violation of its AUP, Surpass Hosting will initiate an investigation. During the investigation, Surpass Hosting may restrict a customer's access in order to prevent further potentially unauthorized activity. Depending on the severity of the violation, Surpass Hosting may, at its sole discretion, restrict, suspend, or terminate a customer's web hosting account and/or pursue other civil remedies. If such violation is a criminal offense, Surpass Hosting will notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of such violation.

Surpass Hosting does not issue credits for outages incurred through service disablement resulting from AUP violations.

Surpass Hosting customers agree to indemnify and hold harmless Surpass Hosting from any claims resulting from the use of our services that damages them or any other party. The Surpass Hosting service is provided on an as is, as available basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or non-infringement. Surpass Hosting expressly disclaims any representation or warranty that the Surpass Hosting service will be error-free, secure or uninterrupted. No oral advice or written information given by Surpass Hosting, its employees, licensors or the like, will create a warranty; nor may you rely on any such information or advice. Surpass Hosting and its partners and suppliers will not be liable for any cost or damage arising either directly or indirectly from any transaction or use of the service.

Modification

Refusal of Service

We reserve the right to refuse, cancel, or suspend service at our sole discretion. An example of refusal of service is if an account continues to abuse our policies after warnings. Refusal, cancellation or suspension of services especially holds true to issues with spam or any script abuse. Another example of refusal of service is if a customer becomes very unreasonable, unprofessional, extremely difficult to work with or threatening. Said customer's account will be suspended and we will recommend to the customer to find a new host. A backup of the account(s) will be provided.

Question about our policies?

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you have about our terms of service. Feel free to post your question at the Surpass Forums. Our staff or helpful forum members will explain! We also welcome your insight and suggestions.